


The Violet Soul

by OblivionGrey27



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, I suck at tags, Original Character POV, Souls, Spiders, Violet Soul
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 00:33:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7736083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OblivionGrey27/pseuds/OblivionGrey27





	1. Merging Souls

#  Prologue

##  Merging Souls

My eyes widened as I spotted my own HP, and my heart dropped; not my soul that was currently dancing around the strange metaphysical bullet-board. This entire place was surreal, but when being attacked by a mer-horse with a fifty-pack of abs, I didn’t have time to think about the trippy fighting system. My soul danced as I watched helplessly; a monster attacked a human’s soul with magic, and a human attacked their body with brute force. Lacking both brute force and the intent to harm these creatures, I tried my hardest not to get hit by his attacks. This time was luckily his easily predicted ‘flexes of death’, and soon I breathed a sigh of relief as it was my turn to attack, talk, eat or spare. I dug through my pack that hung around my waist, quickly and my heart fell in my chest. In the pack was nothing but my violet covered notebook, my name scrawled across the white on the front of it. None of the magical monster food that immediately healed me. Gulping, I scrolled over to the Mercy option with my soul on the bulletboard, but in my haste, rather than hit the ‘flee’ option, I chose the Mercy option. My soul froze and I looked up at the brown and green mer-horse. Completely oblivious to my fear, he decided to attack me with his incredibly difficult-to-dodge sweaty assault.

I managed to dodge the first few drops, but my entire body froze when a white drop collided with the violet heart that represented my heart on the bullet board. Not because I was shocked, or terrified, but because I was  _ incapable _ of moving. The bullet board fell away, and my body fell to the ground of the area I’d learned was called Waterfall. There was a light, soft shattering sound, but I couldn’t see what had broken, as I was cast into darkness.

It wasn’t the normal unreadable darkness that came when you closed your eyes. I couldn’t describe it, but it wasn’t the same as the darkness that should be black but wasn’t comprehensibly so. But...it kind of was. I was cast into an emptiness that was terrifying and comforting, and so completely impossible to understand. But I didn’t want the strange comfort. I didn’t want the death that meant I was here. Despite lacking the physical anatomy to do so, I felt tears in my eyes. Of course, no tears fell.

Despite the uselessness in it, I lamented my entire path to come here. Not because I had died, or would leave people grieving. That was of no concern. In fact, that was the issue.  _ Nobody _ would grieve my disappearance. A nerdy orphan leaving behind no friends or family, a nerdy girl who was too smart to be friends with my peers, but not smart enough to be revered by the adults in my life. Either bullied or scolded. If anyone even noticed my disappearance, they wouldn’t care. Nobody would care.

I felt a pain in the core of my being, what would be my heart if I still had one. I didn’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I can’t die without making a single friend! I reached out for... _ something _ to keep me alive. More impossible tears, as a moment passed where nothing happened.

Was this really the end? I wondered, trying to reach further for an anchor to reality. An anchor that would bring me to life. I shook my head. It couldn’t be...I can’t die like this!

Suddenly, the emptiness was replaced with light, and I tried to blink away the sudden assault on my eyes, but I couldn’t.  _ No eyelids _ . Something deep in me said, and strangely enough, it didn’t scare me. When I could finally look at the scene without feeling blinded, I realized I was hanging upside down from the ceiling, by some unseen thing that made me feel incredibly safe.  _ Thread _ . Looking down, I saw the mer-horse searching frantically what appeared to be a dead body. It took way too long to realize, the round framed glasses, short black hair, violet eyes staring blankly. It was... _ me? _ It didn’t seem right to call the corpse me. After a moment, the mer-horse seemed to give up on whatever it was looking for, and left the body alone. Taking a deep breath, though the air didn’t pass through my mouth, I somehow lowered myself to the ground with the unseen thread. Never releasing the comforting  _ thread _ , I slowly made my way over to the body. Moving was...strange, though I couldn’t recognize how. Crawling up to the cool lenses of my glasses, I breathed deeply.

Looking down at the reflection in the clouded lenses, I froze. It didn’t seem strange in my mind, but somewhere, my reflection terrified me. I wasn’t anything terrifying, but I...was a spider. When did I start being a spider? Why am I a spider!? I quickly backpedaled from my own reflection, and my body fell from the head that was once...me? I kept going backwards until my rear pressed against an incline, and I fell back, but landed on my underside rather than my back. I’d let go of the thread, and the entire world was fuzzy, blurry, and being a spider clearly hadn’t improved my sight.

I didn’t want to be a spider. I wanted to have hands and fingers and hair and only two legs! I wanted skin and to know how I moved. I wanted to be a human!

Suddenly, my eyes were covered by the familiar unreadable darkness, much to my surprise. I took a deep breath and was surprised when the air went through my nose. Reaching up, I felt soft flesh against soft flesh. Flesh! My eyes snapped open and I looked over myself. Pale gray skin, and fingers, and arms! I looked over myself and saw a familiar body, covered with pale gray skin and soft flesh, though pressing slightly revealed a hard thing right underneath. I scurried over to the body and grabbed at my glasses hazily. When I finally grabbed the wire-frame glasses, I squinted to look at my own reflection. I still had four eyes, completely black with no irises. I had no eyebrows, but the top pair of eyes seemed like eyebrows when they were closed. I struggled to close only the top eyes, and after a few moments, I managed to close the top pairs. My eyelashes made the black lines look similar to eyebrows, and I could then cover my bottom eyes with the glasses to see. It was difficult to only close two of the eyes, and even harder to  _ choose _ the ones to close, like winking with two eyes.

I gulped, standing to my feet. Looking over myself once again, I saw I was, luckily, not naked. I was wearing a weird, silvery-white dress. Looking closer, I could see the thin fabric was made of layers and layers of spider silk.

Sighing, I pressed the heels of my palms into my bottom eyes, and ground my fingertips into my top eyes. Geez, that sounded  _ so _ weird. What could I do now?  _ The thread… _

A thought came to mind, and I quickly searched the ground for the thread I’d had when I first turned into a spider. I remembered the safe, calming feeling it gave me. As soon as I found it, I grabbed hold of it for dear life. It wasn’t sticky and annoying, like webs often used to feel. It felt strong, yet delicate in my hand, and I couldn’t bring myself to try to break it. I could also... _ feel _ along the thread, could sense things happening all the way along the thread, back to places where it broke off and separated into webs, and where those other threads traveled across the entirety of the underground. The thread made me feel...safe.

I followed the thread, the entire way feeling like as long as I had the thread, I would be safe. Nobody attacked me the way there, and I quickly made it to a large building near an unmanned bake sale. My heart swelled in my chest, and I felt like I was at home. Stepping inside, I was met with cool relief, as the outside had been incredibly hot. I suppose lava surging below might have that effect. The inside was incredibly dark, with only a thin strip of a balcony, hugging one wall, and then dropped into a black abyss. The thread in my hand showed me that, in the abyss, and I could feel hundreds of spiders on threads that extended from that web. One came up to me, spinning a web of her own.  _ Lett… _ I somehow recognized, looking down at the spider. It was definitely larger than spiders on the surface, but I didn’t care. I bent down in front of her, extending my hand. She fearlessly crawled into my palm, and I raised her to my face.

_ Viola? _ She hissed, and when I thought about it, that’s all she’d said.  _ Is that you? _ But clear as day, I understood her words.

I shrugged. Was I Viola? It sounded familiar, but...not quite right. “I don’t know.” I said, though my voice sounded foreign to my own ears. “I mean, I  _ might _ be, kind of, but…” She turned her head slightly, her eight little eyes shining up at me.

She made a motion that told me to put her down, to which I complied, and she told me to follow her. She lead me to the edge of the balcony, and walked along an invisible thread towards the web. As soon as my bare foot touched the thread, my mind filled with a black and white ‘picture’ of where she was leading me, which hadn’t been evident in my first thread. After a moment, the picture faded away, and I was left with the feelings, the vibrations that went across it. I could feel all the way to the string in my hand, and vice-versa.

Gulping for a moment as I reconsidered putting my weight on the thin thread, I heard Lett urge me on, insisting it was fine.  _ Just be careful. Muffet can do it, why couldn’t you? _ The mention of this ‘Muffet’ made me feel even safer than the thread, and I stepped forward, towards my new life.


	2. A Promise for Revenge

#  Chapter One

##  A Promise for Revenge

It was a normal day in the Parlor, and I was feeding Tuffet some pastries that had gone bad. Suddenly, on the balcony that overlooked the seemingly bottomless abyss below, a door flew open, and Muffet quickly made her way in, whispering to nearby spiders. Looking down at Tuffet, the giant muffin-spider looked at me with confusion scrawled across its cakey features. Knitting my top pair of eyes, I quickly made my way up the webbed platform that lead to the center web, level with the balcony. “Miss Muffet!” I called when I finally made it to the center web, leaping easily from the web to the web that connected the two balconies. “Is everything okay?”

She smiled at me in her creepily cute way, blinking her five eyes. Despite the casual expression she wore, I could tell she was nervous. I raised an eye, displaying my confusion. “Ahuhuhu,” She chuckled, raising an empty hand to cover her mouth. “It’s nothing, Dearie!” She cooed, gently caressing my face with her other empty hand.

I exaggerated my raised eye, glaring at her blankly. Muffet rarely lied, mainly because she  _ can’t _ lie. “Oh really? Then why aren’t you manning the bake sale?” I tilted my head slightly, letting some black hairs fall into my face.

However, she was nothing if not persistent. “A monster came through, and asked for all the pastries we had! I was simply coming to restock.” I gave her a face that said,  _ really? Just...really? _ She seemed oblivious to her own bullshit, and quickly motioned me away. “Just go, go! I need you to fetch Tuffet for me!”

I knit my forehead, bringing my top eyes closer together. Slowly, however, I turned and leapt over to the center web, not wanting to walk across the thin threads that connected the bridge to it. Suddenly, something hit my back, sending me over the edge of the web and falling into the blackness.

A moment later, I landed on Tuffet’s soft top, head spinning at the sudden change in reality. Slowly, I rolled off the pastry-spider, and it nudged me with one of its black, slender legs. Glancing up at Tuffet, I chuckled slightly, reaching up to it. It immediately rubbed its face against my palm. “Good Tuffet.” I whispered, pushing myself to my feet. “Come on, Muffet needs you.” With that, I climbed on top of it, and they started to climb up the walls towards the balcony.

As we neared the bridge, my heart froze, and I patted Tuffet, telling it to stop. I spun on Tuffet and silently jumped over to a silver web level with the balcony. When I rested on the web, I focused on the many threads, and a black and white image formed in my mind, while keeping my eyes locked on the two figures. Several spiders surrounded Muffet, and in front of her was a...creature. They had yellowish skin with short, dark brown hair, narrow eyes and a blank expression. Wearing a blue and pink striped shirt, they were covered in a thin, silvery gray powder, and wielded a blackened frying pan and a white apron. Their appearance seemed almost human, but they radiated a dangerous, murderous aura. I tightened my grip on the threads underneath me, as a wave of terror ran through me. I bit down on my lip, happy this monster body didn’t bleed as my small fangs pierced the flesh.

I watched, frozen, as Muffet initiated a fight against the intruder, but before she could even pour them a cup of spider tea, the figure lunged towards her, quickly destroying her physical body. My eyes widened, my top pair opening as well, and I quickly started crawling backwards as her body seemed to crumble into ash.  _ Dust _ , I corrected, as she quickly disintegrated before the figure. Keeping quiet, I crawled back away from the balcony, trying to put as much distance between that  _ thing _ and myself. Tears formed in my eyes, but I didn’t let out a sob, and waited in silence for the thing to leave. After a moment, they seemed to brush away excess dust, and I bit back my anger. Who knew what other monsters they’d just mixed with Muffet’s dust! However, I waited in silence until they left out the other side of the Parlor, and a few moments more, before I started towards the pile of Muffet. Quickly separating from the threads, I felt blind despite the clear image my contact covered lenses provided me. I didn’t feel like I could see until my booted foot landed on the webbed bridge. Like my clothes, it was tight knit threads that made a solid, flat surface, the individual threads barely discernable to the touch or naked eye. Perhaps a compound eye, but not a simple eye. That meant Muffet’s dust remained with no fear of falling to the ground below.

When I finally made it to the small pile of dust, I was careful not to touch it, even as I fell to my knees to kneel before it. Tears formed in the corners of all four of my eyes, pouring down my face in a mess of salty liquid. Despite all the tears my eyes formed, only a single drop fell onto the dust, and I quickly scrambled to try and fix it. Running my fingers through the dust, my heart ached. I could  _ feel _ the monsters here. Of course, it was mostly Muffet, but there were bits and pieces of other monsters.  _ Snowdrake...Shyren... _ Even the mer-horse, who in my time as a monster, I’d learned was named Aaron. So many crying souls, pained, broken...Dead. With no chance of being re-animated, their souls broken and shattered, lost to time. All that remained of them was their dust, spread somewhere in the Underground, and their essence.

My hands shook as I struggled to hold her dust in my palms. When I felt none of the other monsters, I cradled my hands to my chest, not caring as the dust stained my skin, darkening the pale gray. “M-Muffet…” I whispered tearfully, biting my lip. “I...I…” I struggled for something I could say. What could make this better? How could I fix this!?

The dust was silent, not crying with the pain of the other monsters’ dust. As much as I hated myself for thinking it, I kind of wanted to feel that pain, just so I could still feel like she was  _ there _ . But her dust was silent, leaving me feeling empty and alone.

I felt a tug at the hem of my dress. Slowly, I looked down, finding a thin black spider with the familiar violet cupcake insignia on their back. It was Lett, still alive after all these years I’d been living in the Parlor, and showing no sign of age. She looked up at me with concern, and it was only then that I realized I had been surrounded by hundreds of spiders who called the Parlor their home. Thousands of simple eyes were on me, despite those not on the thread actually being able to see me.  _ Violet? _ Lett whispered, looking ready to cry.

I quickly dropped the dust, reaching down and cradling her in my hands, pulling her to my chest in a strange hug. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes, so I clenched them shut, burying my chin in my chest.

**She’s dead?** Another spider asked, and I realized several spiders had crawled up my body to console me.  **Muffet is dead?**

I gulped, reaching up to touch him. It was a spider named Ivin. He pressed his body against my hand. “Muffet…” I whispered, though not to anyone in particular.

Muffet’s not dead... A spiderling named Jin said, wrapping her arms around me as tight as she could.  Right, Violet?

I gulped again, and a single tear fell down my cheek. “R-Right...Muffet just...fell down.” I used the term for old age among monsters. Despite knowing it was a clear lie, all the spiders nodded in agreement, if only for the spiderlings’ sake. I bit my lip and slowly pushed myself to my feet. With a light  _ click click click _ , I became aware of Tuffet walking towards me. Smiling weakly, I pat the muffin on its head. “She just...turned to dust really fast…” With that, I picked up some of her dust. “See? She’s not in pain.” Some brave spiders came forward and touched the dust, hesitantly, before they let out a breath of relief when they sensed no pain in the dust.

Several spiders nodded, and mates cuddled together. Lett looked up at me.  _ What are we going to do now, Violet? _ She asked, slightly nervous. I smiled weakly, kneeling down next to her, and extended my hand to her. She set one leg on my hand, the closest we could get to holding hands.

“I’m...I’m going to get revenge…” I said weakly, finally pulling my hand away from her. Sighing, I stood once again and brushed my hair out of my face, once again forming the long bob that framed my face. “I’ll make that... _ thing _ know how much they hurt us.”

Lett seemed slightly hesitant, but after a moment, nodded. Suddenly, however, a look of fear came over her face.  _ But what if… _

I shook my head, cutting her off. “I won’t let that happen, Lett.” After that, I chuckled slightly. “Besides, I already came back to life once!” She looked up at me with a knowing look, before nodding slowly, hesitantly.

_ Y-yes! You can do it, Violet! _

I smiled, more earnestly than the weak ones before, and nodded firmly. Quickly scraping what dust I could of hers, I moved Muffet into a small, heart-shaped locket, and secured it around my neck. Before I left, I quickly used my silk to make a thick cloak that resembled fur in feel, and easily made it black. Monster Spider Silk could change color at the spider’s will. Wrapping it around my neck tightly, I quickly made my way to the River Person, who sat waiting in their boat.


	3. Internet Friends

#  Chapter Two

##  Internet Friends

The River Person’s boat ride always seems to go by so quick, and today I hated that. A few moments after we left from Hotland, we arrived to the cold underground tundra known as Snowdin, giving me no time to prepare what I might say to him. The boat settled next to a ledge, and, nodding to the cloaked figure who brought me through the underground so quickly, I climbed out. They hummed some little tune, but I paid no further heed to the monster, and made my way down to the main town. Quickly turning east, I made my way towards my destination, hoping,  _ praying _ , those two were still alive. After all, the town was deadly quiet, no sign of life throughout. Far too soon, I stood in front of the door, hand shaking violently as I tapped my knuckles against the door.

There was silence, and my entire being froze as if every atom were holding its breath. What...what would I do if they weren’t here? What would I do if that... _ thing _ had killed them?

After a moment, however, the door flung open, and I jumped forward, wrapping my arms around the figure that stood in the doorway, not even taking the time to figure out who it was. As soon as the body went rigid in my arms, I knew who it was; the younger of the skelebros, Papyrus. A chill ran through his body, and he let out a loud wail in his high-pitched, scratchy voice. “SANS!” He screamed, trying to pry me away. I tightened my grip on the skeleton, feeling tears form in my eyes. “Get your spider friend off of me!”

I felt two gloved hands grip my shoulders, and immediately released the taller skeleton, wrapping my arms around the shorter, but older skelebro. I quickly buried my face into the fabric of his cyan hoodie, tears overflowing from my eyes, gritting my teeth tightly. “Whoa, hey, kiddo!” He chuckled, patting my back gently. More tears came forth, and I don’t know if they were from happiness the two were alive, or from sadness that Muffet was dead. “Jeez, calm down! You’re going to cry yourself bone dry!” He laughed.

I shook my head against his chest, squeezing him tightly, and my entire body seemed to go limp against him. He wrapped his arms around me to keep me standing, as my legs seemed incapable to keep me up as I continued to cry into him. “I-I’m...s-so-soo glad...you’re okay!” I cried, and he chuckled gently, leading me over to the couch.

“Yo, bro, go check my sentry station for napkins.” Sans instructed, and Papyrus darted out the door. I don’t know if he actually believed Sans’s bullcrap, or just wanted to get away from me, but he was gone in a second, leaving Sans and I alone. He quickly pried me away from him, wiping the bulk of my tears away, rubbing the white fabric of his mittens over them. “So, what’s got you down, kiddo?”

I chuckled coldly, moving my hands down so I was grabbing his shoulders. “I’m the same age as you, Sans.” He shrugged, eyes drooping slightly and a bead of sweat forming across the top of his skull. I shook my head slowly. “H-how are you two alive…? That thing...I thought…”

Sans’s skull moved in a way that recommended he raised an eyebrow. “Thing? How ‘bout you tell me what’s got you so upset?”

Slowly, I pulled my hands away, jaw shaking slightly. Rather than say anything, I moved over to the small coffee-table that was pushed against the east wall, kneeling down and removing the locket from around my neck. Sans followed me, looking at me curiously. With shaking hands, I opened the locket and poured the dust onto the wooden table. Sans’s eyes widened slightly, and his perpetual smile seemed to waver. “S-someone fell down?”

I glanced up at him, scrunching up my forehead, bringing my upper eyes closer together. Despite how much I wanted to, I couldn’t muster up any anger behind my gaze. “N-no…” I whispered, voice shaking heavily. “And you’re not stupid enough to believe that.” He shrugged, though his expression remained nervous. “They came through here, didn’t they? That’s why the town’s so empty?”

He gulped and nodded slowly. “That thing...I think it’s supposed to be human.”

I sighed, feeling my heart fall at that. “I was scared of that.”

Sans shook his head, nodding to the Muffet-dust. “That’s…?”

“Muffet...They came and...just...killed her.” I felt tears forming in my eyes once again. “She didn’t even...have a chance.”

Sans gulped and pulled one of his white mittens off, before reaching out and dipping the skeletal fingers of his left hand into the dust. He raised invisible eyebrows, showing clear surprise. “She’s so peaceful.” He finally said, and I nodded, smiling weakly. “So...why are you here?”

I sighed, carefully brushing the remaining dust into the locket once again. “Because...I’m not so forgiving.” I chuckled dryly. Perhaps  _ bone _ -dryly? Ugh, I’m becoming Sans. “I promised the spiders I would make them feel what we did when they took Muffet…” I stuck my tongue into my cheek nervously. “But, I’m not a fighter.”

He raised a single invisible eyebrow, chuckling quietly, trying not to make light of a serious situation. Before he could speak, I clamped my hand over his unmoving mouth, though I knew it was pointless. His mouth served no role in his words. He, however, took the hint and stayed quiet, so I continued. “My body is weak as a monster’s, but I lack strong magic because of my human soul.” I raised my hand over my chest. “I’m not like Muffet, I just look this way because…” I groaned, dropping my head onto the coffee table. “I dunno, because I didn’t want to look like a spider? I’m not powerful like she is. All I can do is make this thread.” I raised my hand, forming thin threads between them, which I could expertly use to make clothes and such. I quickly, expertly, twisted my fingers, braiding the threads together, before dropping the small spider silk rope. Sighing, I lifted my head and rest it in my palms. “I need your help, Sans. Please?”

His eyes widened, and his perma-smile seemed to twitch slightly. I raised an eye. I didn’t even know he could  _ do _ that. Sans’s smile seemed eternal, never fading even when he was taking his many breaktime naps. His smile soon returned, full force, though his eye sockets showed nervousness. I looked at him with pleading eyes, opening all four of them in an attempt at the cute eyes Tuffet always begged me with. He stared at me like I had suddenly grown a second head. He gulped, suddenly turning away from me. “Uh, well, I  _ would _ , but…”

I sighed, shoulders falling slightly. “What? They’ve killed so many people! They killed Muffet…” My heart fell in my chest. “W-wasn’t Muffet your friend?”

He sighed, taking a deep breath, and shook his head. “An internet friend. They spared Papyrus, kiddo. I can’t attack them after that.”

I stared at them blankly, as my heart fell into my feet. “B-but…”

He ran his fingers through nonexistent hair, chuckling weakly. I knit my eyes together, pushing myself to my feet so I was slightly taller than him. Before I could say more, he continued. “Besides, as far as that kid is from you, they’re still a human, and, well…” He shuffled his feet in his pink slippers. “I can’t…”

I grit my teeth and dug my claws into the palms of my hands. “Whatever.” I said lowly, pushing past him. “I guess it was stupid to ask  _ you _ for help.” I growled, slamming the door behind me as I left his house. “It’s not like you care about anybody anyway.”

I quickly made my way to the River Person’s ledge, and saw...they weren’t there. Groaning loudly, I looked down the river to see if their boat was in sight. When it wasn’t, I kicked a lump of snow into the water. It’s almost like they  _ knew _ Sans wouldn’t fight them if they spared Papyrus. Every muscle in my body clenched and my hand flew to my mouth. Quickly, I spun on my heels and  _ ran _ towards Waterfall. Hopefully I could make it there before they made it through the Core...I had to talk to Alphys.  _ Please be alive... _ I thought, gritting my teeth. She  _ better _ be alive.


	4. Determination...?

#  Chapter Three

##  Determination…?

I stood, doubled over, panting heavily as I stood outside Alphys’s Laboratory. The River Person had apparently decided to drop off the face of the underground, I decided, when they refused to make an appearance in Snowdin, Waterfall,  _ or _ Hotland. I briefly wondered if they’d picked up the... _ thing _ , and that’s why they were nowhere to be seen. Shakily, I raised a hand and knocked on the normally automatic door of the Lab. A few moments later, there was loud rumbling behind the door, and it flew open a second after. Alphys looked up at me, showing no hint of surprise. I was reminded of her cameras littered throughout the underground. She didn’t greet me with her normal, slightly stuttery shy voice, and she was clearly all business, her scales smoothed back, glasses clear and lab coat worn neatly. Her face was no-nonsense, and her eyes were slightly glazed over. “A-Alphys!” I heaved, all-but collapsing against the yellow reptilian monster.

She looked at me curiously, patting me awkwardly on the back, and I didn’t even realize she had lead me into her lab, shutting and locking the door behind us. I breathed deeply and straightened myself. “You ran from Snowdin?” She raised the ridged section above her eye as me as if to say,  _ really? _ I rolled my eyes, though even  _ that _ seemed to be halted by my heavy breathing. She stared at the locket around my neck, and I raised an eye. “I’m sorry about Muffet, Violet.” She said sadly, breathing deeply. “I know how much you must’ve cared about her.”

I gulped slightly, biting my lip. But before I could start crying again, I shook my head violently. “That’s not why I came here. But...um…” I gulped, shifting my weight. “How is everyone?”

She breathed deeply, raising her hands to cover her face, though not from embarrassment like normal. “Everyone who wasn’t killed by the human is in my Lab, er...um…Basement...lab.” She scratched the tiled floor with the claws on her toes. “Well, and Undyne.”

My eyes widened, and at this point I’d given up on closing the top pair. I needed the other two so I could feel less blind without threads. “Undyne’s here? I thought that if  _ anyone _ fought the human, it’d be her!”

Alphys chuckled dryly, though slight tears formed in her eyes. “She, uh...She did, back in Waterfall, but…” Her shoulders fell. “She died, trying to save my sibling, but, somehow, she was determined enough to live, and, well...she’s kind of...gooey.”

She motioned for me to follow her, but at the mention of determination, my eyes widened, and I grabbed her shoulders. “Determination…? Isn’t that the thing that let me come back to life?”

She looked at me like I was insane. “Well, as far as I can tell. You were so scared of dying, or something, your human soul merged with Viola’s monster soul. But you probably lack any  _ physical _ determination, or else you’d be…” She chuckled dryly. “Spider Cider.”

I glared down at her for a moment, before looking up at the large screen that monitored the human. They were in Waterfall. So the River Person  _ had _ taken them around! I made a mental note to make Tuffet a snack with them. Shaking those thoughts aside, I turned back to Alphys. “I don’t care about that. Do you think it’s  _ possible _ , even if highly unlikely, that a human might be able to use their determination to  _ reset time? _ ” She stared at me blankly, eyes wide.

After a moment, she sighed, shaking her head, and took my hand in her scaly grip, leading me towards the ‘bathroom’, though monsters didn’t use toilets. Ever. It revealed to only be an elevator. After a long, silent ride, the door opened, revealing a brightly lit hallway that did little to diminish the creepiness. Hundreds of monsters filled the halls, but they immediately pushed themselves against the walls to make way for Alphys and I. She quickly lead me to a large, mostly empty room with several panels on the opposite wall, and a large gurney, holding the familiar, blue scaled fish monster. Only, her entire body looked like she was melting into the gurney, and she looked lost and in pain. My eyes widened at the sight, and I rushed past Alphys to her side. “Undyne!?”

The royal guard cringed at my voice, and I snapped my mouth shut, pursing my lips. Oops. After a moment, she looked up at me with a pitiful look on her face. “Vi...let?” She whispered, a harsh contrast to her normal loud, bombastic voice. It pained me just to hear it, and I couldn’t imagine what she must be feeling. She reached a drippy hand up to me, and several...er,  _ drops _ of her blue arm fell to the ground below, before slowly climbing back up to join her body. She touched my face, as if to see if I were real. Her gentle touch was heartbreaking, and not just because her hand was like liquid against my flesh. Wha...what could have happened!? “W-y? I tha-ought I could...protect us...Protect everyone…”

Suddenly her entire hand quivered, before falling to the ground below. I couldn’t help but let out a cry of shock, jumping back about ten feet. It slowly began to climb back up the gurney legs to rejoin the rest of her body. Alphys appeared beside her, holding a large syringe of...something. I knit my upper eyes at her, and though she was facing away from me, she explained, “I’ve been injecting her with the dust of some monsters the human has killed. Hopefully, the physical matter might help her form stabilize...But…” Alphys sighed, pulling the syringe out of Undyne’s...chest...glob...area. “Best case scenario, it  _ might _ counteract some of the determination and let her physical form stabilize.” She bit her lip. “Worst case scenario, she…”

As if on cue, a large...creature...with a wide, saucer shaped body with six legs and a black hole in its ‘head’, came bounding in, tackling Alphys to the ground, and spitting up a weird fluid into her face. She seemed completely unfazed, and simply pushed the thing away. “Might become an amalgamate.” She sighed, running her claws over the three large spikes on the back of her head.

“Al-fiss..” Undyne whispered, reaching up to Alphys, whose eyes widened. “I...uh…” She seemed to struggle for words, knitting her red eyebrows, until her eyebrow melted down her face, quickly mixing with her ponytail.

Alphys sighed, shaking her head, before reaching up to rest her clawed hand over her eyes. “Rest, Undyne. It’s getting late.”

Undyne opened her mouth to argue, but her voice was cut off by her own snores, and Alphys pulled her hand away, turning towards me. I’d moved from behind her to the corner of the room, shaking, eyes locked on the blob that had been my  _ friend _ not long ago. Alphys quickly made her way over to me, sitting down next to me. “You okay?” She said, her voice void of any emotion.

I shook my head. “You?”

“Well, the girl I love is a gelatinous blob, my friends are being murdered, and my boss is probably about to be executed.” She said dryly, staring at something and nothing like it had insulted her. “So, not really.”

I glanced over at her with my top eyes, staring down at the toes of my black boots. “Where’s Mettaton?”

She shrugged, waving a hand absentmindedly. “The core, somewhere. I tried to get him to hide with us, but…” She shrugged again. “That damned robot never listens anyway…” I nodded slowly. “You know, I told Muffet the human was coming, too, but she insisted she wouldn’t let some human scare her out of her Parlor.”

I chuckled dryly, taking the locket in my hand. It seemed to pulse along with my heart. “Sounds like her.”

Alphys sighed, hiding her face in her arms. “This can’t be it, Violet…” She whispered, before looking up at me, staring at me with blank, empty green eyes. “So, you said something about restarting time?”

My eyes widened slightly, but I quickly nodded and started to explain. “Well, determination is...Some pretty fucked up shit.” At my use of swear words, Alphys’s eyes widened and what I think was an arm of Undyne’s blob-body shot into the air with some strange pride, before melting back into her body. “Case and point,” I motioned to Undyne and myself. “We’re both alive, though we should be dead! Though,” I coughed, throat suddenly scratching. “I guess it works better for... _ part _ human...things…”

Words are clearly my greatest enemy. Alphys’s eyebrow ridge raised. I cleared my throat, before continuing. “We don’t really know  _ what _ it’s capable of, so I was thinking...Well, I asked Sans to help me defeat the human. But since the human spared Papyrus, Sans won’t attack them.” I explained, digging my own claws into my palms as I remembered our earlier conversation. “Has the human...spared any other monsters?” Alphys shook her head, knitting her eyebrows. “Well, what if...What if the human  _ knew _ Sans wouldn’t fight if they didn’t kill Papyrus? That they fought Sans before, but couldn’t defeat him, so instead...made it so they never had to fight him in the first place?” Alphys seemed deep in thought, considering what must’ve seen like insane rambling.

After a moment, Alphys looked up at me, catching my eye. “So, like saving a video game?”

I shrugged. “I know it sounds crazy, but...How could a human kid go around butchering people fearlessly, unless they knew, even if they  _ did _ die, it wouldn’t really mean anything?”

Alphys knit her eyebrows, nodding slowly, before saying, “So, we’re pretty much screwed?” I raised an eye, looking at her curiously. “If they can ‘save’ themselves, then killing them wouldn’t work, and we’d just be sent back, as if nothing had happened.” I bit the inside of my cheek at her words.

“Maybe, but…” sighing, I pushed myself to my feet, before extending a hand towards her. I felt like some stupid anime character, and even had a one liner to accentuate that idea. “If that’s the case, what’s the problem with trying?”

Alphys looked like she wanted to say something that would easily negate this allegation, but bit down on her lip, before nodding, taking my hand. She seemed to be filled with, well,  _ not _ misery at this idea, and turned to Undyne, who was sleeping... _ peacefully? _ It’s kind of hard to tell, considering she has no discernable face. She turned to me, smiling with her normal awkward, slightly embarrassed expression. “I have to take care of Undyne. But, uh…” She seemed to wrack her brain. “Well, don’t die is kind of cheesy, huh?”

I chuckled slightly. “I think that’s even cheesier.” She rolled her eyes, something someone with a discernable iris and sclera, rather than one giant pupil, could do visibly, and shooed me out of the room. It wasn’t until I was back in her lab, about ready to head into Hotland, that I came to the realization I had no idea what to do. “Well, fuck.”


End file.
